Miss America racism: Attacks on Miss America winner shame us all

By Lisa CianciOrlando Sentinel

CaptionMiss America 2014

LUCAS JACKSON / REUTERS

Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri poses for a photo as she splashes in the Atlantic Ocean in Atlantic City, N.J., on Monday. Nina Davuluri won the 2014 Miss America pageant on Sunday, becoming the first Indian-American to wear the crown, which went to Miss New York for the second year in a row.

Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri poses for a photo as she splashes in the Atlantic Ocean in Atlantic City, N.J., on Monday. Nina Davuluri won the 2014 Miss America pageant on Sunday, becoming the first Indian-American to wear the crown, which went to Miss New York for the second year in a row. (LUCAS JACKSON / REUTERS)

My husband, son and I finally got around to seeing "The Butler" over the weekend. It was a heartbreaking movie, and it made me sick as it revisited some of the more awful, racist times in our country's history.

What wasn't on my mind at all was the Miss America pageant, which was going on in New Jersey. I'm not a fan of pageants; yes, yes ... the winners get scholarships and they have a platform that they campaign on. But they are still also judged while parading around in bikinis and high heels. I can't get on board with that.

Regardless of my personal pageant views, however, the winner by most accounts is an articulate and smart woman, despite her own controversy over the summer after allegedly calling the reigning Miss America fat. Nina Davuluri, Miss New York, is also the first winner who is of Indian descent.

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